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Keith Datchler

I was born in London where I lived with my family until they moved to East Sussex in the late 1950s. My father bought a village store having had enough of life as a city accountant. Luckily for me there was a farm opposite the shop were I spent every spare moment from the age of 11 until leaving school. These years shaped the rest of my working life ~ the city boy was determined to Farm!

Plumpton Agricultural College gave me the final skills and my future wife. Forty years, three children and the same wife later I still love the countryside and have more time to give something back.

Through my job I have acquired a particular knowledge of meadows as the Agricultural Estate I manage has one of the largest surviving tracts of ancient meadow in the southeast.

Therefore I was very happy to join the Trust and support the WMI with all its good work, a classic example of protecting our existing heritage and landscape whilst researching one of our most endangered habitats. The initiative also works to establish methods of recreating these beautiful wildflower meadows back into the landscape. The Trust focuses on education and the acquisition of skills that improve the environment within which we all live – The Weald – I’m pleased to be a part of that.